This SMC article is a research paper about wolves' cognitive abilities. Throughout this paper, the story of Robert unfolds. Robert learns just how cognitively advanced wolves are and how great of companions they can be. I write this paper to educate humans on other animals and to prove why these animals deserve protection and safety on our planet.
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Writing 60- My Scicomm Article - Google Docs
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(Gorman, 2017) (Crivello, 2011)
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Snowfall was heavy on this Friday afternoon in Minnesota. Robert looked around and all he could see was a blurry white landscape. He began to feel fear rise through him, something told him a predator was near and that he had to continue with caution. He thought to himself “home is only 3 blocks away, if I continue, I will make it soon.” Robert was extremely frightened, but this was his home. He knew his way around and had faith that he would make it back safely.
Robert continued walking down the path that led him home, he only had about 3 blocks to walk. He began to zone out because he could barely see the world around him. He was no longer aware of his surroundings. All he could see was a white blurry landscape. He kept himself calm but could feel his nerves rising with every step he took. Out of nowhere he heard an aggressive blaring howl that shocked him back into reality. He could make out a gigantic gray furry body. Immediately he began to run. Seconds later a car came skidding down the path, barely avoiding a collision with Robert.
Robert felt like the angels had saved his life, there was someone watching above him who wanted to ensure his safety. He began to further think, he remembered the fear present in the wolf. Maybe there was no angel. The wolf had been there for a reason and stepped in right when he needed him. Though he only looked at the wolf for a split second he was able to sense that the wolf wanted to give him protection and had real fear for his life.
Had the wolf been trying to warn him? How could a wolf understand that that was going to happen? Why would they care? These questions circled through Robert's head as he finished his walk home.
Robert is a fictional character. This paper uses real life research along with a plot formed from this character's point of view.
Robert is a vet at his local animal hospital. He graduated top of his class and has done very many research studies on canines and other animals he cares for at the hospital. Roberts main passion is science and animal behavior. His job as a vet allows him to study and care for the animals in his community. Robert has obtained a strong understanding of how the animals in his clinic behave. He knows a lot about dogs, but found himself wondering about their canine relatives. Robert lives in Minnesota. Minnesota is home to one of the U.S.’ largest populations of Gray wolves. Minnesota has an estimated 2,696 gray wolves living within its borders as of 2023 (Wildlife Informer). He had heard many stories of wolves breaking into the backyard, attacking dogs, and threatening livestock. Robert lives in a suburban town with lots of farms. Most of his friends despise wolves because they have endangered their homes and left them with great fear. Robert understands why they have this fear, but he also wonders if they are simply creating preconceived notions on how wolves really behave. Robert decides to do some online research to understand wolves' day to day life.
Wolves live in cohesive family groups called packs. These packs have established territories and are an organized fundamental unit. Within a pack there is; a long-term bond breeding pair, mature offspring, and pups; occasionally, an unrelated individual may join the group. Packs contain as little to as many as 2 to 15 members (Wolf Pack Ranks). Within pack life, wolves are sharing, they evenly split up labor among each other and reap the benefits from all pack members. Even pups learn how to be a part of the pack and are socialized and schooled on how to be a leader. All wolves help one another. When pups are young, older wolves will bring them back food to eat and protect them from predators.
Wolf packs contain rankings that put each and every wolf into a position that allows them to best benefit the entire pack. Within a pack there are 1-2 alpha leaders, they defend the pact and are the leaders in all the hunts. Beta wolves are right under the alpha leader. They still hold a strong position, being the alpha leaders second in command. They make decisions and lead their pack, but always fall behind the alpha leader. The lowest in the pack is the omega. They are often the youngest and the weakest. The rest of the members of the pack are called subordinates. They learn from the wolves around them. Wolves' cohesive packs and ranking are what allows them to be so strong. They are able to cooperate with one another to ensure they are all fed, safe, and happy. (Wolf Pack Ranks)
After researching, Robert decides that he wants to find this wolf and thank them. Learning that wolves respect those in their pack and protect them, Robert decides to assume that this wolf sees him as a companion. Robert believes that wolves are brilliant but hopes to prove this more with his own research. The fact that they are able to set up their own positions and obtain an extremely cohesive pack leaves Robert in awe. From what Robert has learned, he has found that many packs are more cohesive than a human family and hold great strength.
Robert does not find it hard to find the wolf, he and his family are extremely noisy! Robert decides to stay hidden and watch them interact. He watched as the wolves played with one another. There are two leaders of the pack, and 13 other wolves. He watches the leaders act as teachers towards the younger wolves. They discipline them and show them how to act with dominance. During ontogeny, play concurs in implementing physical, cognitive, emotional, and social skills of individuals by guaranteeing a safe and enjoyable environment for training. (Lampe, Michelle, et al. 2017)
From watching the wolves play and conducting his research, Robert learns that peaceful cohesiveness is a feature of wolf society that is guaranteed. By playing, wolves can acquire information about physical and cognitive skills of others with whom they can compete with in the future for dominant position. Robert read from an abstract titled: Back to the Future: A Glance Over Wolf Social Behavior to Understand Dog–Human Relationship; “Wolves can make peace after aggression, console victims of a conflict, and calm down the aggressors. This set of behaviors, also called post-conflict strategies, requires a social attentiveness towards others’ emotional state and the ability to coordinate appropriate reactions.” (Cordoni, G., & Palagi, E., 2019).
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These are characteristics dogs hold. Like wolves, they learn how to play and be respectful of their dominant. Robert is able to come to the conclusion that like dogs, wolves are capable of seeing humans as their dominant and/or companion. (Cordoni, G., & Palagi, E., 2019)
Though Robert had come to many conclusions about wolves and their behaviors from simply watching them interact, he wanted to also perform his own testing on these wolves and bring in other control factors. Robert decided to call in some friends to help. Him and his friends acted as ‘handlers’. He asked each friend to bring their dog. Robert wanted to test if wolves, like dogs, would cooperate with humans when training and completing tasks.
All 15 of the gray wolves were a part of Robert’s testing. Furthermore, 12 mixed-breed dogs were analyzed to use as a comparison when testing the wolves' abilities. The friends Robert brought in were used as ‘handlers’ for the animals. They each had a companion that they were paired with and got to build a connection with. They fed them, walked them, trained them, and got extremely close with the animal they were paired with. Each animal was testing to see which trainer they fit best with (Range, et. al, 2019).
Robert and his friends performed 5 sessions of 6 trials. The handler was not allowed to talk, look or gesture to the animal in any way during a trial and followed a strict protocol. Within the trials, wolves and dogs were tested to see if they could complete simple tasks with or without their handlers. There were trays that they would use to complete tasks. They would complete these tasks alongside their handler, with more or less help depending on the trial (Range, et. al, 2019).
Robert and his team found that when tested with a human partner in the spontaneous condition, wolves succeeded above chance level: on average in 61.5% of trials. Dogs on the other hand performed at chance level i.e. on average they succeeded in 49% of trials; range: 0–88%. Only one animal never succeeded in solving the task with the human partner (Imara, a dog). (Range, et. al, 2019)
Different tests were conducted, some where the animal had access to the test before their handler arrived and some where the handler was already present and ready to aid their companion. Animals were significantly more successful in trials in which they arrived at the tray before the human did, highlighting the difficulty for the animals to give up their own preferences and adjust to the human. (Range, F., et. al. 2019).
More tests were conducted during these trials to analyze how the animals view their handler. (a) the frequency of gazing at the human partner (b) and the likelihood of stealing the rope from the human partner, which usually happened when the human was at the tray first and chose the animals’ preferred rope-side.
The data Robert found reveals that “when socialized with humans and kept under similar conditions, despite dogs showing deficits when cooperating with conspecifics compared to wolves, dogs and wolves do not differ in their ability to successfully cooperate with a familiar human partner. However, interesting differences between wolves and dogs emerge when the details of the cooperative interactions are analyzed, showing that while wolves are more inclined to initiate behavior and take the lead, dogs are more likely to wait for the human partner to initiate going to the second tray and then follow.” (Range, F., et. al., 2019).
Robert was extremely pleased with the results he found. All his research added up and he was able to come to the conclusion that wolves are extremely similar to their canine relatives. Wolves have amazing cognitive abilities and are able to work alongside humans. Robert now sees this wolf pack as a family, a family he wants to be a part of.
As time went on, Robert spent a lot of time with these wolves. He grew extremely close with them. Many of the wolves would aid him in his day-to-day labor and would even attempt to share their hunts with him (Robert didn’t really want to eat elk, deer, or bison, but was always extremely flattered when offered!). When watching the wolves Robert would study how they play interact, and live. Robert has learned a lot about wolves through his study and has used his knowledge to advocate for wolf safety and education.
Wolves are endangered animals. Many humans take wolves for granted and do not realize their importance. Wolves are endangered because of our actions; our government took them off of the ESA (endangered species list) which was the only thing that protected them from nearing extinction.
Our government has made the decision not to care about wolves' livelihood and give them zero protection from the murderous beings on our planet. Humans need to learn about the reality of wolves and their behaviors. Wolves have very high cognitive abilities and are ab;e to understand relationships and simple tasks just as well as dogs. Why do we see dogs so highly, but fail to recognize the importance of wolves within our planet? Wolves are as cognitively advanced as dogs are and deserve protection. Our government allows wolves to be murdered. For changes to be made all humans need to be educated on the truth of their abilities and the importance of them within our ecosystems.
Several animals have brains that are similar to humans. They want to interact with and learn from us. Animals are curious and want to learn about one another. As humans we must continue being curious when it comes to animal behavior. We are still learning and overtime our knowledge can help us build stronger relationships within our ecosystems, bettering our planet and the lives that inhabit mother earth.
Works Cited
Cordoni, Giada, and Elisabetta Palagi. “Back to the Future: A Glance over Wolf Social Behavior to Understand Dog–Human Relationship.” MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 18 Nov. 2019, www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/9/11/991.
Crivello, Jacqueline “Timber Wolves.” National Geographic, 13 Jan. 2011, www.nationalgeographic.com/photo-of-the-day/photo/timber-wolves.
“Gray Wolf Population by State (Estimates & Info).” Wildlife Informer, 24 Jan. 2023, https://wildlifeinformer.com/gray-wolf-population-by-state/.
Gorman, James. “Wolves Know How to Work Together.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/science/wolves-dogs-cooperation.html.
Lampe, Michelle, et al. “The Effects of Domestication and Ontogeny on Cognition in Dogs and Wolves.” Scientific Reports, vol. 7, no. 1, Sept. 2017, pp. 1–8. The effects of domestication and ontogeny on cognition in dogs and wolves | Scientific Reports (nature.com)
Lenkei, Rita, et al. “Adult, Intensively Socialized Wolves Show Features of Attachment Behavior to Their Handler.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 14 Oct. 2020, www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-74325-0.
Range, Friederike, et al. “Wolves Lead and Dogs Follow, but They Both Cooperate with Humans.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 7 Mar. 2019, www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40468-y.
“Wolf Pack Ranks, Roles & Order - Wolves.” Simply Ecologist, 31 May 2024, https://simplyecologist.com/wolf-pack-ranks
